Samuel Patten, the Paul Manafort-connected consultant who pleaded guilty on Friday to violating foreign lobbying laws, has a long history of working for shadowy political forces across the globe, including in former Soviet nations, Iraq and Russia.
Patten's plea is not part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, but was the result of a referral from his office. His plea explicitly states he must cooperate "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" with Mueller's team _ a fact that could prove crucial to prosecutors as they prepare for Manafort's second trial in September on charges of money laundering, illegal lobbying and lying to the FBI. Manafort was convicted on eight counts of tax and bank fraud in Virginia on Aug. 21.
The charges Patten pleaded guilty to pertain to his lobbying work for the Ukrainian pro-Russian political party known as Opposition Bloc, which Manafort helped establish in April 2014 to boost public perception of then-recently-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych had been removed from power amid allegations he sanctioned mass killings of civilian protesters and embezzled billions of dollars in state funds. He currently lives in exile in Russia and remains wanted in his home country for high treason.
Patten's website reveals little of what type of work he did for Opposition Bloc, only stating he "worked for multiple political parties and office-holders in Ukraine, exceeding expectations in each instance."
Neither Patten, 47, nor his attorney responded to requests for comment from the New York Daily News, but Patten's guilty plea sheds more light on the matter.
Patten performed "political consulting services" for the party in Ukraine as well as in the U.S., lobbying members of Congress and forming an American business entity together with a person believed to be Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence asset who's also connected to Manafort, according to court papers.
Working on the Opposition Bloc's behalf, Patten admitted he and Kilimnik lobbied members of Congress and State Department officials to adopt pro-Opposition Bloc policies, all the while without having properly registered with the U.S. government as foreign agents.
Before his work in Ukraine, Patten worked at the Moscow offices of the International Republican Institute, a pro-free market group affiliated with the GOP, according to his website. Patten met Kilimnik at the IRI and the two have stayed in touch ever since. "I relied on him," Patten told the Washington Post in 2017 about their work in Moscow.
In the same interview, Patten said Kilimnik _ who's widely believed to be an agent for the Kremlin's military intelligence service _ was crucial to Manafort's lobbying foray into Ukraine.
"I would think that Manafort would have been useless there without Kostya," Patten said, using a common nickname for Kilimnik. "You can't just fly in and talk about the good old days of Nixon. You have to have some relevance there."
Patten has also done lobbying work for Saleh al-Mutlaq, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, who was barred from running in the country's elections in 2010 because he was accused of promoting late President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
In the 1990s, Patten did public relations for a number of big western corporations venturing into Kazakhstan, including Coca-Cola and oil giant Texaco, according to his website.
On a domestic level, Patten's website states he has worked as "a legislative advisor and speechwriter" to two U.S. senators. He says he has also served as a "key aide" on congressional, gubernatorial and presidential campaigns in four states.
It was not immediately clear which senators Patten worked for.
News reports from the time reveal Patten worked as a campaign aide for Rob Sobhani, the Independent Maryland candidate for U.S. Senate who funneled more than $4.6 million of his own money into a 2012 race he ended up losing.
Patten also has some connections to the Trump administration, according to his guilty plea.
He admitted in the court papers to acting as a "straw" purchaser for Kilimnik and a man believed to be Opposition Bloc politician Sergei Lyovochkin when they wanted tickets to President Donald Trump's inauguration. Foreigners are prohibited from donating to inaugural committees, so Patten bought tickets for them and a fourth unidentified individual, totaling $50,000.
